Each year from September 15th to October 15th, Americans celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month as a time to recognize the many contributions, diverse cultures and extensive histories of the Hispanic and Latino communities in the United States. The Biden-Harris administration, small business boom, is being driven in large part by Hispanic founders, business owners and innovators.
During Hispanic Heritage Month, the U.S. Small Business Administration is shining a spotlight on the incredible spirit of this diverse community, while also highlighting the Small Business Administration's historic work to help more Hispanics than ever realize their American dream of business ownership.
Lisa Young: Joining me today is Aikta Marcoulier, Small Business Administration regional administrator located in Denver. She oversees the agency's program and services in Colorado, Montana, Utah, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. Aikta, ,thank you for talking with KVNF today.
Aikta Marcoulier: Thank you so much for having me.
Young: So I'd like for you to tell our listeners about the enterprising spirit of today's Hispanic and Latino communities across our Western region, which is resulting in the creation of more Latino owned small businesses than we've seen in more than a decade.
Marcoulier: Yeah, I would love to talk about that. Thank you for asking. Hispanic and Latinos are actually the fastest growing demographic of business growth. We're actually experiencing under this administration, the Biden-Harris administration, 19 million new businesses and across the Western Slope, across Colorado and across the nation.
They are the fastest growing in over a decade demographic for business ownership. So it's really exciting. And we're taking this month to recognize all of those dreams being fulfilled, legacies being created by the families along the Western Slope. And, you know, they are incredibly entrepreneurial as shown in the numbers that we're seeing today.
Young: You know, I noticed that in the last year, the Small Business Administration loaned a record of $3 billion to Hispanic business creators and also helped Latino businesses access somewhere around $10 billion in federal contracts.
Marcoulier: Under our guidance of Administrator Isabel Guzman, who is the top ranking Latina in the President's cabinet, which I think is pretty neat. She is really focused on the access for our Latino businesses to capital, to our federal contracts and growing their work there and support. And so we've done a lot of work to ensure that we are creating an equal playing field and providing the resources. I know on the Western Slope, at times it's harder to find those resources, harder to find the lending opportunities. So we've worked really hard to get in to get those numbers, the record $3 billion, nearly two times more since 2020 in loans being provided to our Latino entrepreneurs, nearly 10 billion federal contracts.
We're working really hard to expand our capital access programs, reach more of our minority and rural and underserved communities. And those are numbers that show the impacts of the work that we've put in on the program to increase accessibility, and we have a lot of resource partners that help with that to serving, you know, the Western Slope as well. So we're working hard together on the federal, state and local community side to ensure that these numbers are being exceeded each year and we're really excited. to talk about these record numbers that you just mentioned.
Young: I'm curious about how the Biden Administration contributed to the growth in the Hispanic and Latino owned businesses.
Marcoulier: There has been a lot of work through the Investing in America dollars that's kind of inclusive of the bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, Inflation Reduction Act, American Rescue Plan. There's a lot of plans that have been put in place to really support the one goal that we have, which is our equity plan, creating access, leveling the playing field, equaling the opportunities for businesses across the nation, across Colorado, whether you're in Paonia or the Western Slope, Delta County to Denver. You know, Pueblo and everywhere else, we're making sure that through these programs that we've that we've created, that there's dollars that can go into the hands of the businesses and making it easier. So another thing is we're transforming customer experiences by creating platforms which are easier to access. If anyone has worked with SBA, they know that there's been a lot of portals, a lot of access points, and we're bringing that all together so it's easier to get the support you need in one place.
Young: Where do people find more information about the Small Business Administration, the programs and services that you provide?
Marcoulier: So, sba.gov is a great place to start and there are so many resources to find there. You can really whittle down to the location you're at to find the Mi Casa in Colorado that can support your business within the business center, but it serves all veterans business centers, small business development centers. There's one specifically that serves the Western Slope. You can find everything there.
And we're not just limited to loans and lending. I want everyone to know that there are resource partners that give you free technical assistance. Boots on the ground. That's my history. That's where I come from and it is one of the best things we have. But there's support specifically for rural communities, agriculture, Native American communities, accelerator grant programs, technology exporting. Everything is at sba.gov And you can always reach out to our Colorado District Office, which is located in Denver as well through that same website.
